Meeting old friends again!

After getting back from Biarritz i was on a train and on my way up to Clitheroe. This is a small town up the north of England. Chris was waiting at the train station when i arrived. It was great to see him again. I first met Chris when he was working in New Zealand at Nic and Gerry's place. I met his mum and she dropped us off at the hotel i was staying at, 10 mins up the road from her place. Oh my god, what a sight when we first drove up to it. Eaves Hall Country Hotel. I found out that this use to be a private members only country club accomodation. It was fantastic. They have only had it open to the public for 2 years. It was awesome. Well i got settled in and Chris and I walked down to his mothers place, stopping on the way for a beer at the pub. His family are very nice, i also met two of his brothers(Paul and Ian). Then we got dropped off in town and had a great meal and some drinks as we visited the other bars. Talking for hours, it was good to catch up again. Chris had taken a couple of days off work so the next day we went up to the Clitheroe Castle and had a look thru the muesum, england has so much history. They also have Pendle Hill which has a story about witches surrounding it. No time to lose tho we had to met Ian at the Vets. He drove us out to a farm that Chris use to work on. So different to New Zealand. They calve all year round, which means they milk all year round. They cant have their stock in the paddocks in winter, because they are just to wet, so they hous them in big sheds. To do this they feed them a mixture of things. Silage, hay, grass and even potatoes, they thought i was weird when i said we feed turnips sometimes. So to feed them all, the paddocks in summer have to be cut(usually twice), then they collect the grass and store it in huge sheds. Some of their cows dont even step foot into a paddock their whole life. Oh and I saw the funniest thing. Chris showed me into the milking shed, they have 130 cows and they put them thru a 4 aside shed. Gosh it looked funny, no where to run if a cow starts shitting. And their stock are huge too. Most of the cows' backbones were taller than me. Thats over 5 feet tall to their back bone. Made me feel very small and rather scared. The next day Chris, Ian, Hannah and I went to the "Great Yorkshire Show". Its like our feild days at mystery creek. It was great. And so hot. They show alot of cattle at these shows. and the biggest bulls i have ever seen. Later that night Chris was meeting me at the hotel for dinner and he had bought along a bit of a surprise for me. He had Lindsey with him. It was great to see her again, unfornately she had to take off to work so i only got to speak to her for about half an hour. But she was looking well. Day 3 and i was back on the train again. Chris and i went out for lunch then i went back to London. I was buggered. It had been a full-on 3 days but I enjoyed every minute of it. I glad i caught up with him and Lindsey again, and will maybe catch up again when he comes to Australia.